Wolf delisting reasoning questioned

Posted: Monday, Jul 1st, 2013BY: Andrew Setterholm

PINEDALE – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced a sweeping proposal on June 7 that, if finalized, would remove Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections from the gray wolf across the nation and turn wolf management over to state agencies. Less than three weeks later, on June 27, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) released a report accusing the USFWS of making the decision without scientific support.

The CBD, a nonprofit natural resource conservation and protection organization, filed a Freedom of Information Act to obtain documents detailing a meeting between USFWS and state agencies in 2010. The documents, CBD claims, show the USFWS’s decision to pursue a nationwide delisting of wolves was “preordained” and not based on science.

“Under the ESA, decisions to list and de-list species must be made solely on the basis of the best available science. In this case, the newly obtained documents suggest the service pushed ahead to de-list wolves without scientific support in order to obtain a political outcome desired by state fish and game agencies,” a release from Brett Hartl, CBD endangered species policy director, states.